NemO(T)  | GAME STORY

CHICAGO, IL - It was a career night for New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec on Wednesday in Chicago.

Nemec scored the first hat trick of his career, capping off his performance with the overtime winner against the Blackhawks. The 21-year-old defenseman called for a Hail Mary pass from his goaltender, Jacob Markstrom, in overtime to go one-on-one with Blackhawks goaltender Spencer Knight. It was a heads-up play by Nemec, who recognized the Blackhawks were in the midst of making a change. Left alone, Nemec took full advantage.

“He was waving for it with his stick, he was wide open," Markstrom, who made 17 saves on 20 shots, said. "A little soft pass, he had to wait for it a little bit, but it was his night tonight. Huge game for him and to top it off with the OT hat trick is huge.”

Before Wednesday night, Nemec had just five career goals. He had three tonight as the Devils beat Chicago 4-3 in overtime.

“That was probably the first hat trick in my career,” Nemec said. “I was never a shooter or a scoring guy. I’m glad for that, but obviously a great team win.”

“He showed the forwards how to do it,” head coach Sheldon Keefe joked. “All three goals he’s in forward positioning and finishing it. But good on him to find those spots and to finish. We worked this morning about activating our D and getting our defense involved and he certainly was paying attention.”

The Devils were quickly short-handed in the game after losing forwards Zack MacEwen and Cody Glass in the first period, forcing them to play nearly 40 minutes with just eleven forwards.

Three times the Devils found themselves trailing, and three times they came back to tie the game. Simon Nemec had two of the game-tying goals, the first at the tail end of the second period, before tying the game a second time at 3-3 in the final minutes of the third.

"This group, to keep forechecking after being down a couple of time, and to come back is impressive," Markstrom said, "It’s a big character win. We played pretty good, but it’s a hard-fought game. They’re a good team and they’re dangerous when they get their chances. I thought, short-manned, guys are stepping up.”

Dawson Mercer responded early in the third period when the Blackhawks had taken a 2-1 lead, tying the game at 2 with his ninth goal of the season.

Connor Bedard, London Slaggery and Sam Lafferty scored for Chicago.

Here are some observations from the game:

• All four of Brenden Dillon's first-period hits were leveled onto Blackhawks star Connor Bedard.

• Just a game after returning to the Devils lineup, Zack MacEwen was injured once again. He went down hard behind Jacob Markstrom's net and into the end-boards before skating back to the bench and making his way down the tunnel. MacEwen had just returned from the previous game and was part of the makeup of the fourth line with Paul Cotter and Luke Glendening. Head coach Sheldon Keefe said, after the Islanders game, that the two occasions where MacEwen had been on that line, in his first game of the season in Tampa and again on Monday, were the most he's liked the fourth line this season.

• Cody Glass, who also just recently returned from injury, left the game in the first period. Glass was skating on the backcheck and stretched out with his stick to take away a passing lane in front of Markstrom's net, when he appeared to have lost an edge and went hard into the end boards with his upper body. Glass looked to be in some considerable pain and skated off on his own. The play happened seconds before the start of the first intermission. Glass was back on the bench for the start of the second period, he took one shift and looked in some discomfort, and ended up leaving the game.

There was no update on either player following the game.

• Nico Hischier’s assist on Simon Nemec's goal was his 434th NHL point. That puts Hischier in the top-five scoring in the NHL for Swiss-born players. His 434rd point tied Mark Streit for fifth overall. One more point for Hischier and all top-five Swiss-born point getters will be active NHLers.

• Let alone the hat trick, Wednesday night was the first time Simon Nemec had a two-goal effort in a single game, . His first two goals were assisted by Jack Hughes and his exceptional vision.

“That was unreal," Nemec said of the two passes. "Just give him puck and he finds you. When he’s open, you always want to give him the puck.”

• Nemec became the youngest defenseman in NHL history with a hat trick and an overtime goal in the same game.

• Sheldon Keefe made some changes to his top two lines in hopes of creating a spark on offense, but because of the early injuries to both MacEwen and Glass, there was a lot of double-shifting for many of the forwards on the ice, disrupting a consistent rhythm of being able to roll the same set of lines, shift after shift.

At the start of the game, Keefe had moved Arseny Gritsyuk to the top line with Jack Hughes and added Dawson Mercer to the wing, while Jesper Bratt joined a line with Nico Hischier and Timo Meier.